Grab is talking to Ant Financial and PayPal about spinning out its financial services business

Grab, the $16 billion-valued ride-hailing firm that acquired Uber’s Southeast Asia business last year, is in talks with Alibaba’s Ant Financial and PayPal as it considers spinning out of its financial services unit to double down on its non-transportation business, TechCrunch has learned. The seven-year-old company’s coming-of-age moment was a deal to buy Uber’s regional […]

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Alibaba, Tencent and other major names form $1.45B ride-hailing venture

For the last two years, Didi has been the dominant car-hailing force in China and its success has spawned a handful of competitors initiated by both internet firms and old-school carmakers. Just last week, another notable challenger has stepped up. T3, which is short for “top 3”, officially launched after a dozen entities, including three […]

View More Alibaba, Tencent and other major names form $1.45B ride-hailing venture

Alibaba acquires Israeli VR startup Infinity Augmented Reality

Infinity Augmented Reality, an Israeli virtual reality startup, has been acquired by Alibaba, the companies announced this weekend. The deal’s terms were not disclosed. Alibaba and InfinityAR have had a strategic partnership since 2016, when Alibaba Group led InfinityAR’s Series C. Since then, the two have collaborated on augmented reality, computer vision and artificial intelligence […]

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Tencent Q4 profit disappoints, but cloud and payments gain ground

China’s Tencent reported disappointing profits in the fourth quarter on the back of surging costs but saw emerging businesses pick up steam as it plots to diversify amid slackening gaming revenues. Net profit for the quarter slid 32 percent to 14.2 billion yuan ($2.1 billion), behind analysts’ forecast of 18.3 billion yuan. The decrease was […]

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Spotify rival Tencent Music posts maiden quarter loss of $130M on one-off costs

Tencent Music Entertainment Group, the Chinese answer to Spotify that Tencent spun out and floated on the New York Stock Exchange in December, reported a net loss of 876 million yuan ($127 million) in its first set of quarterly results since going public. The loss, which TME forecasted in its prospectus filed ahead of the IPO, […]

View More Spotify rival Tencent Music posts maiden quarter loss of $130M on one-off costs

Spotify rival Tencent Music posts maiden quarter loss of $130M on one-off costs

Tencent Music Entertainment Group, the Chinese answer to Spotify that Tencent spun out and floated on the New York Stock Exchange in December, reported a net loss of 876 million yuan ($127 million) in its first set of quarterly results since going public. The loss, which TME forecasted in its prospectus filed ahead of the IPO, […]

View More Spotify rival Tencent Music posts maiden quarter loss of $130M on one-off costs

Surging costs send shares of ecommerce challenger Pinduoduo down 17 percent

China’s new tech force Pinduoduo is continuing its race to upend the ecommerce space, even at the expense of its finances. The three-year-old startup earmarked some big wins from the 2018 fiscal year, but losses were even greater, dragging its shares down 17 percent on Wednesday after the firm released its latest earnings results. The […]

View More Surging costs send shares of ecommerce challenger Pinduoduo down 17 percent

Food delivered to the doorstep is not so cheap in China anymore

A big selling point of ordering food to the doorstep in China is price, which, in the early years, could be much cheaper than eating in-house. That’s arguably indulged a demographic of lazy, indoorsy eaters, but that may not last for much longer. Over the past few months, users in China have noticed incremental price […]

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Sea is raising up to $1.5B for its Shopee e-commerce business in Southeast Asia

Alibaba is about to get a jolt from its largest rival in Southeast Asia. Sea, the Nasdaq-listed business, is raising as much as $1.5 billion from a new share offering that’s sure to be funneled into its Shopee e-commerce business. Singapore-based Sea said in a filing that it plans to offer 60 million American Depositary […]

View More Sea is raising up to $1.5B for its Shopee e-commerce business in Southeast Asia

This $550M fund is bringing green tech from the West to China, despite trade tensions

Escalating trade frictions between the U.S. and China have a range of businesses and investors in both countries sweating, but some believe there remains a bright spot where the antagonists can find common ground — fighting environmental issues. One of them is the U.S.-China Green Fund, which does exactly as the name suggests — financing […]

View More This $550M fund is bringing green tech from the West to China, despite trade tensions

Alibaba challenger Pinduoduo is bringing imported goods to rural homes

Pinduoduo, the latest challenger to China’s ecommerce dominators Alibaba and JD.com, wants to bring affordable, imported items to shoppers in China’s smaller cities and rural areas. The three-year-old Tencent-backed ecommerce upstart is recruiting importers to set up shop on its marketplace, shows a message on its website. The business is known for offering cheap, sometimes […]

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Apple is offering interest-free financing to boost iPhone sales in China

Apple is looking to get over its sales woes in China but offering prospective customers interest-free financing with a little help from Alibaba. Apple’s China website now offers financing packages for iPhones that include zero percent interest packages provided in association with several banks and Huabei, a consumer credit company operated by Alibaba’s Ant Financial […]

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